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Unlike many marketing writers, I started my career as a technical writer. After dozens of years as both a technical and marketing writer, I’ve found that certain writing maxims apply regardless of the type of writing:

Clear, everyday language is key. Yes, your technical audience understands what fractionation means; that is no excuse for pummeling them with unnecessary 50 cent words like utilization (when “use” will do) or simple wordiness like “it is during the process of fractionating that…” (“while fractionating…”).

Pictures are more useful than words. If you can show a procedure, show it. If you have a photograph of your client, office or staff, use it. If a table or diagram or other graphic will get your point across, let the graphic convey the information; don’t repeat it word-for-word in the text. Hire a professional graphic designer or photographer or illustrator. Professionals are worth every penny.

Know your audience. Often a website, for example, is written for someone with a very strong technical background but meant to attract C-level or financial visitors with fairly weak technical background.

Give your audience a break. Include step numbers for instructions; break up large blocks of text with headings and subheads; control the cross-references so the reader isn’t forced to constantly flip back and forth from one paper or online page to another.

Answer the reader’s big questions first. In a technical proposal, the reader’s first question will likely be: “Can you solve my problem?” Save for later your list of reasons why your company is outstanding; first tell readers that you understand their problem and can solve it.

These five rules for writing apply equally to technical content and marketing content. Clear writing directed to the audience, broken up with pictures and headings, and speaking to the reader’s primary interest is writing that communicates.

TWP Marketing and Technical Communications is dedicated to helping you reach and engage your audience. Contact us today.

Confession here: Sometimes when I write this blog, I inadvertently omit the most important words people will search for. I must nudge myself to include “marketing writing” and “technical writing” in my blog posts; to mention that TWP Marketing & Technical Communications is the name of the company and that it is based in Peterborough, NH; and to mention my successes with website, newsletter, blog, brochure, user manual, proposal and report projects.

Part of the reason is that the information is obvious to me; I forget that anyone searching on line doesn’t know what I am a business writer. Part of the reason is that I become so enthusiastic about sharing information that I forget my own marketing drive behind the sharing. And part of the reason is simple oversight–coulda, shoulda, woulda.

I really ought to know better because that sort of mistake is one I regularly fix for my clients. So now it is time to fix it for me: TWP Marketing & Technical Communications, founded as a sole-proprietorship in 1999, provides copywriting and copyediting for small local businesses in New Hampshire and major corporations throughout the U.S. What makes TWP unique is the combination of technical writing and marketing writing expertise. Because I concentrate on writing, many marketing agencies, website developers and graphic designers rely on TWP to fill that technical/marketing writing gap in their services, whether for an entire website or one article. They know I’ve been around to handle their writing needs for 14 years, and I’ll be around for years to come.

With 25 years of experience and publication credits in a variety of industrial and business magazines and journals, I can truthfully say that at TWPour words means business.

And that’s what TWP is all about. Contact me today if you need a professional writer. I’m ready to help you.